ABSTRACT
Johannes Kepler was born on 27 December 1571 in Weil der Stadt in southern Germany to an undistinguished and penurious family. After studies in local schools, he matriculated at the University of Tubingen in 1587 with the support of a scholarship from the Duke of Württemberg. Here Kepler had the good fortune to study mathematics and astronomy with Michael Maestlin, who was thoroughly familiar with Copernicus’s writings and seems to have accepted the heliocentric system. Kepler did well and, after receiving his master’s degree, proceeded to the theological school, intending to become a Lutheran minister. A discussion of the background for Kepler’s work must include a discussion of Tycho Brahe, though the individual—who had, arguably, the greatest influence on Kepler’s career—somewhat paradoxically believed in a very different cosmological system. The Tychonic planetary system is a rather trivial-looking inversion of the Copernican system.
